Where to stay for a romantic hotel break in Brighton, including sea-view rooms and cool cocktail bars

Brighton has always found room for those with love on their minds. Maybe it’s the sea air, or the sight of Prinny’s exuberant Royal Pavilion where he dallied with countless mistresses – here is a city that invented the dirty weekend. But die-hard romantics needn’t feel out of place. Check out Brighton’s burgeoning fine dining scene – and yes, you’ll find oysters – then trawl the cobbled alleyways of The Lanes for fantastic jewellery shops. Even better, the top hotels have suites tailor-made for lovers and honeymooners, many with excellent restaurants attached. Here's our pick of the most romantic hotels in Brighton.

Brighton’s Grand hotel opened in 1864 and has a fabulous sea-facing location. It's plush and luxurious, with highlights including tasteful Art Deco-inspired bedrooms. Don’t miss the spa, whose eight treatment rooms surround a thermal suite and a fabulous relaxation room. Spacious rooms feature sumptuous bedding and seaside-style touches rendered through silver starfish lamps and Brighton-themed photography. Even out of season, traditional afternoon tea while watching promenaders dodge wind-whipped waves is a sublime experience. So too are cocktails in the bar.

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This fabulous boutique hotel spans two late Georgian townhouses and has a great location almost opposite the pier and Brighton Wheel. It’s full of Art Deco-style detailing and oozes style, while remaining sympathetic to its historic footprint. Superior and feature rooms have freestanding baths facing floor-to-ceiling windows, so you can splash in the tub while enjoying the twinkly lights of the pier. There are lots of nice little extras should you fancy yoga in your room, a massage or even a 'love hamper'. The clubby cocktail bar with its imaginative takes on G&Ts is the perfect place to kick-start your evening.

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Hotel Pelirocco offers tongue-in-cheek themed rooms with a retro-rockabilly twist, on Regency Square. It has side views onto the ruined West Pier and is just minutes from the city’s main attractions and shops. All rooms are individually themed to excess: Bettie's Boudoir is a sexy leopard print homage to Fifties pin-up Bettie Page, and has a whirlpool tub and sit-out balcony; and Koibito Love has a circular bed on bamboo stilts, geisha graffiti and a balcony with views of the West Pier. You can even ask for a tailor-made 'erotic hamper' on arrival.

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This upmarket adults-only hotel, set in an attractive Georgian townhouse, offers spacious themed rooms, Art Deco flashes and a swish champagne bar. Behind the cream façade of this narrow four-storey Georgian townhouse is a quietly elegant small hotel with muted neutral tones and rich, velvet furnishings. Blanch House's 12 individually styled rooms are staggered over four floors and are a mix of feature rooms, superior and cosy doubles. Rooms at the front of the building have oblique sea views. There's no restaurant at Blanch House, however the stylish champagne and cocktail bar is a welcome addition, and there's an up-to-date dining guide written by a local food writer in every room.

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The hotel is set right on Brighton’s seafront, making for great views as well as a most convenient location right between Brighton’s two piers. The Harbour Hotels’ nautical theme works well here: a broadly blue and grey colour scheme with stylish detailing in shades of gold, interspersed here with fun, colourful pop art-style seaside prints, in a nod to the locale. In fine weather, the doors of the Jetty bar and restaurant open on to the pavement outside to enable drinking al fresco. This is a popular spot with locals, especially when live music is on, and the hotel also hosts weddings, meaning it can get very busy at times.

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This Grade II Listed Regency townhouse, just yards from Brighton's pebbly beach, the neon-lit Palace Pier and bohemian Kemptown, has opulent rooms, a plush lounge and five-star breakfasts. Around the corner from the seafront, The Square quietly overlooks the gated New Steine Gardens. It's moments from Kemptown's many antique shops, independent restaurants and cosy local pubs. Friendly, attentive and effortlessly efficient, the service is immaculate. There's 24-hour room service and a concierge for those languorous mornings after a late night at the lounge bar.

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The hotel's look is cool private club meets East Village boho – with reclaimed furniture, exposed brickwork, densely pigmented colour schemes and a fabulous collection of paintings and prints by contemporary artists. The artist-designed rooms and – even the smallest (Room 6) – oozes character, with a bold life-sized stencil by Paris’s first graffiti artist, Blek le Rat. Some have roll-top baths. Pick a south-facing room for comfy bedside views over to the sea. Don't miss the fab array of unusual bevvies in the hip sea-facing Cocktail Shack.

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Hotel Una is quite simply one of Brighton’s finest hotels. Quirky details abound: spindly pendant lights, arty driftwood, unusual sculptures – and there’s oodles of on-trend style too, in the beautifully proportioned high-ceilinged bedrooms. Each room is named after a river, and the owner and her architect husband have devoted time and passion into making them highly individual. For a b&b, bedrooms here are seriously sexy: fancy your own double whirlpool tub or sauna? Or perhaps a private cinema with popcorn on demand, or a tucked-away patio or sea-view balcony? In-house massages can also be organised.

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This 11-bedroomed guesthouse above Hove’s highly-acclaimed Ginger Pig Bar and Restaurant is ideal if you want a quieter seaside base. Spacious and elegantly understated rooms include thoughtful beach bags with towels and mats and well-stocked minibars. The smallest room is spacious enough to accommodate a king-sized bed and roomy bathroom; the largest (Room 3) 'feature' deluxe is enormous, with a free-standing bath, twin basins, a separate walk-in shower room and attractive prints by Dan Hillier. The sprawling gastropub downstairs serves highly delicious grub and excellent Sunday roasts.

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Appropriately, the huddle of pistachio-toned Gothic-style buildings that comprises Hotel du Vin originally started life as a wine merchant’s store. Once inside, however, you’re greeted by a spacious split-level bar decked out with leather club chairs, exposed brickwork and a wall-length mural. If you’re celebrating a special occasion splash out on a superior room: Beachy Head features a roll-top bathtub in the bedroom, a leather trim super king-sized bed and an enormous double shower room with twin monsoon heads. The Cristal loft suite is the hotel’s grandest, with an enormous bed and extensive private balcony, alongside leather sofas and twin clawfooted tubs.

Contributions by Rachel Cranshaw & Tracey Davies